u/Dull_Ganache_3914 — reddlx

▲ 338 r/Milford+2 crossposts

The chief writing Connecticut's camera rules is running the state's largest surveillance operation in his own town

To the Milford Board of Aldermen, Mayor Richard Smith, the Board of Police Commissioners, Chief Keith Mello, and the Milford Police Employees' Union, and to our neighbors across Milford:

We are residents of Milford, writing in the open, because that is where this conversation should have happened from the start. For more than a year our town has been fitted with one of the largest police surveillance networks in Connecticut, and most of us learned of it only after it was built.

No one voted for this. The Board approved a line item called a Security Camera Project. It never named a citywide license plate tracking network, a police drone program, or a real time monitoring center. The department's own 2024 strategic plan laid all of it out a year before residents saw a word, and the system has grown from 30 cameras to more than 90 with no new vote.

We were told our data is shared with one partner. The city's own records show a dozen agencies, plus a federal one. In February the chief told the Board of Finance that federal immigration accounts could search Connecticut plate data across state lines. That is not a rumor. It is on the record.

At the very start, safeguards were put on the table, an independent audit, competitive bidding, and proof that our data is destroyed. The board voted all three down. So when we are told to trust the process, we remember that the process already rejected the guardrails.

And we cannot ignore who is leading this. Chief Mello does not only run Milford's cameras. He chairs the state council writing Connecticut's plate reader rules, and Flock itself boasts that it worked with that council to write the new law. The man selling this to Milford is helping write the rules every town in the state will follow. That is a conflict of interest, plainly stated.

To the officers and your union, we hear you, and no one here wants to take away an alert about a stolen car or a wanted person. But that tool does not require a permanent record of where every innocent person in Milford goes, shared far beyond our borders and held by a private company. You said a conversation about safeguards is welcome. So do we. Let us have it honestly.

This month the Governor asked every town in Connecticut to pause new camera installations until the state sets privacy rules. The chief who chairs that state council is refusing to pause his own town.

So here is what we are asking, in the open. Turn the cameras off and do not renew the contract. Produce the records that show who can see our data. Adopt the safeguards you rejected. And to Chief Mello, you work for the people of Milford, not for Flock Safety. If you will not stand with the residents who pay your salary, you should step down.

You all work for us. Come to Parson's Auditorium on August 19, and to the Board of Aldermen special meeting on August 27, and say so to our faces. A safe town does not have to be a watched one.

- Local members of the Milford community

u/Dull_Ganache_3914 — 5 days ago

▲ 72 r/Milford+1 crossposts

Milford PD posted a four-page "Citizen Privacy Guide" for its license plate readers the morning residents get to speak on it. Good step, but it never says how the program was approved.

Milford's police department published a polished privacy guide today, hours before tonight's Board of Aldermen meeting, defending its Flock license plate readers. Credit where it's due, most of the safeguards it lists (21-day retention, no immigration use, audits) are real and worth having.

But two things. The timing: a citizen privacy guide appearing the day residents can speak is the guide that should have existed before the system went in, not after months of public pressure. And the substance: it describes what the technology does, but never explains how it was approved, a $550,000 bond line called a "Security Camera Project," with the words license plate reader and Flock appearing nowhere, and no public hearing.

Safeguards on a program aren't the same as consent to build it. The simplest fix is to publish the actual records so the guide's claims can be checked against the documents. (Meeting details and petition in the comments.)

Sign the Petition: https://c.org/mHnKTtGjCV

u/Dull_Ganache_3914 — 16 days ago

▲ 448 r/Milford+2 crossposts

Milford's police chief says the city's license plate reader program was "always transparent." The bond ordinance the Board approved calls it a $550,000 "Security Camera Project" and never mentions license plate readers or Flock.

This weekend the Milford police chief posted a public letter defending the city's automated license plate reader program. He wrote that it was "always a matter of public record, presented transparently during funding requests to the Board of Aldermen."

Here is what the city's own records show.

The board approved it inside a $7.7 million bond. One line reads "Milford Police Department Security Camera Project, $550,000, Purchase of citywide camera infrastructure" (image above). The words license plate reader, Flock, and data sharing appear nowhere in the ordinance. It sits between a fiberoptic conversion and sanitation trucks.

The bond passed 13 to 2, with no public hearing. The city's automated speed and red light cameras went through their own ordinance and a public hearing. The plate reader network did not.

The city's public transparency portal names one sharing partner. The city's own search audit shows Milford's plate data reaching hundreds of outside networks at once, up to 363, some in other states.

To be fair to the chief, plate readers do have real public safety uses, and he cites them, and he is right that these are a separate system from the speed cameras. The issue is not whether the tool works. It is that a citywide tracking network went in under a generic camera line, and residents were never asked.

And this is not only a Milford story. Departments across Connecticut run these networks, and the data crosses town lines automatically, so it likely includes your town too.

Everything here comes from the City of Milford's own records and public meetings.

u/Dull_Ganache_3914 — 17 days ago

▲ 305 r/Connecticut

Old Saybrook cancelled its police license plate reader system this week. Meanwhile Milford's own records show it built the largest plate reader network in the state, funded under a $550,000 line that never named it.

u/Dull_Ganache_3914 — 21 days ago

▲ 105 r/Connecticut

Dont worry, my response that has already been sent is below.

Dear _______,

Thank you for your message regarding Israel. I appreciate hearing from you. As you know, I have stated unequivocally and clearly that America must stand with Israel.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas led a brutal and murderous attack on Israeli civilians. The scope and scale of this tragedy is heart wrenching beyond words, and I grieve deeply with all who have lost loved ones in this senseless and sickening atrocity. In the wake of the organized massacre of Israelis carried out by Hamas, we must reaffirm our unequivocal and unshakable solidarity and support for Israel. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I am working with my colleagues to ensure that Israel has the military resources needed to prevail in this extraordinary crisis. I also support Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran and providing Israel with the means to counter Iranian attacks. A nuclear-armed Iran is unacceptable, and it is a threat to the entire world. My hope is that negotiations can be resumed, and diplomacy can deescalate the ongoing confrontation and prevent wider regional conflict.

On April 23, 2024, Congress approved a supplemental appropriations bill to provide Israel with $26.3 billion in aid. This critical piece of legislation provides $4 billion for Israeli missile defense capabilities and $1.2 billion for the procurement of the Iron Beam missile defense system. The bill also includes $1 billion for additional humanitarian aid in Gaza, including food, medical supplies, and clean water. President Biden signed the supplemental appropriations bill into law on April 24, 2024.

The supplemental appropriations legislation also provides $9.2 billion in humanitarian aid through the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development to populations suffering the consequences of complex and protracted crises, including Gaza. To increase the amount of aid delivered to the civilians in Gaza, I was a cosponsor of S.Res.224, a resolution calling for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to address the needs of the civilian population.

Over many years, I have supported efforts to strengthen the U.S.-Israeli relationship through robust foreign aid and defense cooperation. Under the Memorandum of Understanding, the United States provides Israel with $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing and $500 million for cooperative missile defense programs each year. This funding deepens robust bilateral cooperation and U.S. oversight while guaranteeing Israel’s qualitative military advantage in the region. While I remain a strong advocate for the continued military aid necessary for Israel to defend itself, military action alone will not end the ongoing cycle of violence. Diplomatic efforts are a crucial tool to achieve regional stability.

On October 9, 2025, Israeli, Palestinian, American and regional leaders signed the first phase of a ceasefire agreement, which included the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. I am filled with joy and relief by release of the Israeli hostages, even as my heart breaks for families whose loved ones have perished. I fervently hope this momentous day, the still fragile cease fire and ongoing talks will lead to lasting peace, with humanitarian aid beginning right away.

I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind as I continue to push for additional U.S.-Israeli cooperation measures, the normalization of relationships between Israel and neighboring countries, and lasting peace in the region. I appreciate your attention to this matter.

Thank you again for your message. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future with any additional questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Richard Blumenthal
United States Senate

April 28, 2026

Senator Richard Blumenthal

706 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Senator Blumenthal,

On or around March 1, 2026, I sent you a detailed letter about the unauthorized war on Iran, your receipt of approximately $390,000 from AIPAC and affiliated organizations, your voting record on unconditional military aid, and your failure to represent the interests of Connecticut voters on matters of foreign policy. I asked you to support the War Powers Resolution, to condition military aid on compliance with international law, to support the ICC investigations, and to disclose your meetings with AIPAC.

Almost two months later, I received your response. It did not mention Iran. It did not mention the war. It did not mention the War Powers Resolution. It did not mention the ICC. It did not mention AIPAC. It did not address a single point I raised. Your office sent me a recycled form letter referencing the October 2025 ceasefire as though it were current news, thanked me for my "thoughts," and promised to continue pushing for "additional U.S. Israeli cooperation measures." The exact opposite of what I asked for.

I am not writing to ask you again. Your form letter already answered every question I had. You support unconditional military aid. You support additional U.S. Israeli cooperation. You have no interest in the War Powers Resolution, the ICC, or accountability for the lobbying money that has shaped your career. You made your position clear not by what you said, but by what you refused to engage with. I hear you.

I am writing to tell you what I have done with your response.

I published it. I shared it with my community alongside my original letter so that people could see for themselves what happens when a constituent writes to their senator about an illegal war and dead American service members. They could see that your office cannot be bothered to draft a single original paragraph. They could see that whether someone writes you in support of Israel or in opposition to the war, they receive the same template about Iron Dome funding and bilateral cooperation. Your form letter has done more to prove my point about AIPAC's influence on your office than anything I could have written myself.

Since sending my original letter, I have been distributing letter templates to constituents across the state. People are writing to you. The volume is going to increase. I suspect they will receive the same form letter I did, and when they do, I have encouraged every one of them to publish it the same way I did.

Here is what has happened while your office spent two months ignoring my letter. American service members have been killed in an unauthorized war. Iran has retaliated against U.S. bases across the Middle East. The Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted. Oil prices have spiked. Your colleague Senator Murphy called the strikes illegal, demanded Congress reconvene, and pushed a War Powers Resolution. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that only 27% of Americans approve of the strikes. A University of Maryland poll found only 21% favored an attack before the strikes began. 70% of voters in a Quinnipiac poll said the president should get congressional approval before military action. He did not get it. And your response to your constituents during all of this was a form letter about the Iron Beam missile defense system.

Senator, I am not asking you to change your position. I know you will not. I am telling you that your constituents now know exactly where you stand, exactly who pays you to stand there, and exactly how little you think of the people who write to you about it. That information is circulating. It will continue to circulate through the midterms and beyond.

You will be hearing from us.

reddit.com

u/Dull_Ganache_3914 — 4 months ago